每日申報를 통해 본 1910年代 日本視察團

Observation Tours to Japan in the 1910s Appeared in Maeil Newspaper

The first observation tour was organized in 1909 by the sponsorship of Kyeongseong Newspaper. Since 200 members of the tour went to Japan and inspected various things, those kind of observation tours continued during the whole colonial period. There were also the dispatches of Inspection Party in the late nineteenth century. They were organized by the Korean government for the purpose of learning modern civilization. But, in the colonial period, observation tours were organized by the colonial organizations such as newspaper companies and the East Colonization Company. The purpose of the tours was to impress Koreans with the superiority of Japan and Japanese modernity. In addition, the observation tours were means of executing the assimilation policy. At the beginning of the observation tour, they were mainly organized with the Korean upper class. Since the middle of the 1910s, however, more diversified members were organized in the observation tours with special purpose related to education, sericulture and agriculture. Probably, this change was influenced by the revision of the provincial administration system in 1914. Their destinations were the cities and towns where they could see the modern facilities. And the visit of the historical sites was intended to show then the close ties of Korea and Japan. The places were useful to justify the Japanese colonialism. The tour members were usually aristocrat, religious leaders of Sinto shrines and temples, the regional figures, gentleman farmers or administrators. There were special groups such as supervisors of tenants after the middle of the 1910s. To conclude, the observation tour was intended to favor pro-Japanese Koreans and to seduce middle and upper class Koreans to cooperate for the Japanese rule, and ultimately to Japanize Koreans' consciousness.